Author Archives: Caron Lindsay

Three days on and I’m still utterly livid at the way in which Tim Farron was forced to resign on Wednesday. His own searingly heartfelt and at times confusing resignation statement has raised more questions than it answered and I know that some LGBT people in the party, particularly LGBT Christians in the party are bewildered and upset by that.

Tim doesn’t have a homophobic bone in his body. He loves people, all people and cares deeply about the issues which affect their life chances. He has argued for the fight for LGBT rights to be advanced in various ways because he knows that that is the right thing to do.

The snap election was a bit of a perfect storm for him. The Tories, who hadn’t really tried to win Westmorland in 2015, upped the ante, so as well as representing the party around the country, he had a fight on his beloved home patch which he only narrowly won. The election was too soon to be properly about Brexit and because neither the other two parties nor the media wanted to scare any horses, so our unique position was not as known or appealing as it would have been in a couple of years time. That, of course, is why Theresa May took the gamble she did.

In trying to piece together the events of this week, I hear, though, that Tim had returned to Westminster in a positive mood. Friendly sources close to him tell me that he had pretty much decided that he wouldn’t fight another election and would have stepped down in an orderly fashion in the not too distant future.

Unfortunately, certain of our peers couldn’t wait for that to play out. Tim had come under criticism from them at their Parliamentary Party meeting and some of them felt that action was required sooner rather than later. On Wednesday afternoon, it seemed that a concerted effort to get rid of Tim was under way when Brian Paddick resigned as Shadow Home Secretary. (Update 9:40 pm)Lord Paddick in the comments below denies involvement in any concerted action but others did make public attempts to undermine Tim Farron). The day before, Liz Barker, who is not a supporter of Tim’s, retweeted an article saying that Tim needed to go, saying it was something to think about. Anthony Lester, or at least his office, responded to Paddick’s tweet announcing his resignation by saying that we needed a change of leader. 

So, what did you think?

I thought it was Tim’s best performance by far of the election campaign. That was all the more remarkable given he was up at 6 am cooking breakfast for a whole stack of Edinburgh West folk.

The only thing I could pick fault with was that he could have pointed out that the SNP are using the Brexit vote to try and get another referendum on independence while at the same time  going further and further away from offering EU membership.
Tim was clear,  passionate, at times funny and the audience really seemed to like him.

He was definitely …

Apologies for the abrupt ending  to the previous post. I have a MacBook that just won’t charge which, as you can imagine, is incredibly frustrating.

So,  I am typing this on my phone.

The debate tonight was prettty much Amber Rudd getting some fairly forensic scrutiny from Farron, Lucas, Robertson, Corbyn and Wood, probably in that order. Paul Nuttall was the malevolently embarrassing interloper – that pain in the backside at a party that nobody will admit to inviting. If his role was to make the Tories look less scary, it didn’t work.

Tim Farron was brilliant – he got his key “trust the people” message across and highlighted the points on the NHS, dementia tax and school lunches. His best line, as tweeted by Nick Robinson, was the “If you vote Tory you give her a blank cheque.

He was fantastic on climate change too.

For me be was the winner. I will take half a mark off for him waffling a bit on the NHS and for possibly over-egging the “Theresa isn’t here” line but apart from that he was great. 9/10

Caroline Lucas was good too – clear and concise. She can have 8/10 because she was better at describing problems than offering solutions.

Angus Robertson, presumably put up by the SNP to give him some exposure as he is under pressure from the Tories in his Moray seat, was very good in parts, particularly on immigration. However when it got to terrorism, he failed on two parts in the same question. He talked about giving the police and security services the resources they require. What, no scrutiny or regard to civil liberties? Well, the SNP certainly isn’t known for that. Nobody south of the border would know, but policing is under-resources and a total mess up here thanks to SNP mismanagement.  6/10.

And we’re off.

First off opening statements from the 7 participants. We have Leanne Wood from Plaid Cymru, Angus Robertson from the SNP, Jeremy Corbyn, Caroline Lucas from the Greens, Paul Nuttall, Amber Rudd and Tim Farron.

Amber Rudd is now claiming credit for stabilising the economy…before driving it off a Brexit cliff. She’s predictably doing the May vx Corbyn. But will people like what they have seen of her Brexit plan, Dementia Tax and under-investment in the NHS.

Amber Rudd says the best person to lead Britain is someone who is too weak and scared to turn up to a TV debate. #BBCDebate

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) May 31, 2017

Corbyn seems pretty animated and on message.

Tim gets the final opening statement. Three reasons to vote Lib Dem: Investment in NHS, giving you a say on Brexit deal, and whatever power you give me I will use to stop May taking you for granted. Here’s the whole thing.

Where do you think Theresa May is tonight?

Take a look out your window. She might be out there sizing up your house to pay for your social care.

And why do you think she called this election?

She wants five years as Prime Minister and she thinks you’ll give it to her, no questions asked – literally.

Even if she brings in a Dementia Tax, sacks your kids’ teachers and nicks their lunches while she’s at it.

We can all agree that is a rubbish offer.

Look, I know we don’t all agree on Brexit, but she’s off to negotiate a deal for you, for me – for all of us.

Imagine if it’s a bad deal – I mean Dementia Tax bad.

I know that to persuade you to vote Liberal Democrat I have to give you some really good reasons.

So here’s three.

One. I’ll rescue the NHS and social care by putting a penny on income tax.

Two. I’ll give you the final say on the Brexit deal, not Theresa May.

Three. Whatever power you give me, I’ll use it to stop her taking you for granted.

It’s strong – What if the Brexit deal is bad, dementia tax bad, he said? We might not agree on Brexit, but I’ll give you a say in what happens next. He described the Tory offer as “rubbish” – talking of May sizing up your house to pay for your social care and nabbing your lunch while she’s at it.

First question on public sector pay freeze. Amber Rudd shows no empathy to the questioner whatsoever and talks about the need to balance the books.